2 Weeks in the Verapaces

After settling in a bit and setting things up in Santa Eulalia, I traveled to Alta Verapaz, and then Baja Verapaz, two departments on the eastern side of Guatemala.

First, I stopped in San Cristóbal Verapaz for their celebration of San Sebastián Martir on Jan 20. This is the town in which I did my master's research on the Deer Dance. It was great to see old friends--Sucy, Vicktor, Gerson and Abelino, Federico, Oscar, Sandra and Esteban, Josefina, Cara and Obed, Carlos and Judith--and to meet wonderful new people like Katie, Chris, Liliana, Eliseo, Chepe, and Henry!

Sucely, Henry, and Lili receiving donated shoes on behalf of CeCEP (Community Center for Pokomchi Education). Thanks to Jenny and the Build a Better World project at the Skirball!!

Sucely shucking corn with Doña Dolores in San Juan Chamelco

After a few days catching up with old friends and meeting new in San Cristobal, I headed down to Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, for the town's fair to see the processions and catch up with the Rabinal Achi dancers. One of my projects is to track how the designation of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage has helped/changed the dance tradition. This is my third time in Rabinal and my second time seeing the festival. The dancers perform the 2-hour dance drama, which depicts a trial condemning a K'iche prince for attacking an Achí village, 4 to 5 times a day throughout the festival period. They also walk to 7 different hill tops to ask the ancestors' permission to portray this drama, which has been central to the Achí culture for hundreds of years before the Spanish came.

King Job Toj making his menacing war cry

In the heat of the trial, Achí King Job Toj (right) grants K'iche Achí (the K'iche prince) leave to return to his lands and say good bye before he is executed for his crimes.

Upon returning to San Cristobal for a day, I was given the chance to visit the community of Río Negro, which is on the border of Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. This recently renewed community of Achí-speakers is testament to the continuing recuperation of Guatemalan communities after the 36-year civil war. As strong opponents to the Guatemalan government's plans to build a hydroelectric dam that would flood their community (covering over 3000 years of history, including ruins of a classical period site), the Achí people of the towns of Río Negro, Los Encuentros, Aguas Calientes, and other settlements along the banks of the river were victims of some of the worst atrocities committed by the Guatemalan military. Because they opposed the building of the dam and refused to move, they were deemed "guerrillas" and thus, subject to the worst torture. As has been documented, the military plans were literally to destroy these communities and all their inhabitants. Over the course of two years and 5 massacres, the buildings in these towns were completely destroyed and about 95% of their inhabitants were killed. Several, however, managed to escape into the hills and live there for up to two years before beginning the slow process of returning to their communities.

After 20-or-so years of dormancy, the dam now built and the original settlements under water, people are returning to their land, a bit higher up the hill than before, which makes agriculture more difficult. However, Río Negro now proudly counts 19 families (after a recent marriage in December). A San Cristobal resident and philanthropist, Carlos Hooper, pictured below, helped to build the new school and kitchen facilities for the tourist center. in 2009, a German organization built this beautiful community center, where cultural tourists come to learn about and support war victims. The docents of the Center for History and Education (CHE . . .) are survivors who share their experiences and stories in hopes that the world does not forget what happened there.

Barack Obama is a particularly celebrated person here. He recently suspended monetary aid to Guatemala until they comply with the reparations promised to the victims of these massacres. I traveled with a team of Guatemalan engineers hired by a Canadian project, CECI. They were their to consult with the communities of Río Negro and Chicruz to see how they could help the people to improve the agricultural production, water supply, and livestock management.

Maynor, Nikte, me, Carlos, and Ferdi enjoying the boat ride from 

Río Negro's original name, Riij Ib'ooy, is Achí for "Armadillo's Shell." As Sebastian explained to me, the grandparents named it so for this prominent rock formation protecting the town, which they said was the face of an armadillo.

Front deck of the center, with beautiful view of the river, pine trees, and mountains.

Back of the Center for History and Education with a view of this important mountain on the other side of the river. As Sebastian explained to me, the hill is enchanted. It is able to imitate human and animal voices, and it is insusceptible to fire.

After having read about one of the instances in which the military tricked the women and children in the town into marching into their own mass murder, I decided to make the same hike they did. An incredibly beautiful trail winds around the top of the ridges of grassy hills. The sun and the breeze dancing with the long grass was tainted by the shadow at the top--the darkness of a fear that seeped into the rocks 30 years ago from 177 women and children not knowing what would meet them at the top of this hike.

NEVER AGAIN: "On the 13th of March 1982, 70 women and 107 children were massacred by the Xacoc militia and the military under General Lucas García"

During my sober descent back to the Center, I stopped to take this picture--an apt metaphor for the new budding growth in the community after a very long winter. 

Sebastian told me much of his story of survival. He fled when his mother and younger sisters were taken by the military on March 13. His mother thought that they wouldn't be hurt, but feared that he would be killed since he was 15 and could be suspected as a guerrillero. Unfortunately, his mother and sisters did not survive, and his father had been killed a month earlier. Sebastian and his brother lived in the mountains for two years, hiding in caves, eating berries and heart-of-palm to survive. They couldn't make fires for fear they'd be detected by the military. Sebastian met his wife in the hills. She was from a neighboring community, also in hiding. His brother married them and they lived together in the hills for 18 months until they finally had to descend when the clothes they were wearing when they escaped had literally fallen to shreds. Sebastian and one of his sisters are the only surviving members of his family. He and his wife were one of the first families to re-populate Río Negro.

The CECI team--providing new hope and support from the Guatemalan community to Río Negro and other communities in the process of rebuilding. With more and more Guatemalan citizens dedicating their time to important projects like this, they decrease the likelihood that Guatemalans will so easily turn against their own people NEVER AGAIN.